So... I know that it is no longer "Tell All Tuesday..." but I have another baby secret to tell you (HOLD THE PHONE... NOT A BABY BABY... just a baby meaning "little" baby). Whoa. Close call.

I get really grumpy when things in my house are out of whack. I mean really grumpy. It's what I call "Pile Syndrome." I see piles start building up... a little pile of clothes here, a stack of papers there, a few clean drishes drying and piled on the countertop. That's all fine an dandy..

But then... BAM!!!

8 piles of clothes! 1 behind the closet door. Another behind the bathroom door. Another in FRONT of the bathroom door. A few little sporadic piles where someone, my husband definitely not my husband, has gotten undressed for the past few days. A pile of camping gear in the hallway. 2 piles of books on the coffee table... 3 piles of work paper son my desk and a pile of miscellaneous objects building up around my sewing machine including qtip boxes, blank greeting cards, the iron, a bible, a few lighters & pairs of socks and change. That's right.... loose change.

AH. Pile Syndrome.

I can't blame Burley, though you can bet your sweet little bottom that I often do. I can't blame myself, because let's face it... I'm perfect. I blame the loft.

We have 0 storage.

How can I blame the piles for being out of place... when most of these things don't have a place to begin with?

I'm sorry lighters... there is no place in our house for you. We are not blessed with a junk drawer. Qtips? fat chance that we have a drawer in our bathroom to keep things. Iron? No such luck.

So all this to say.... I have recently added a new piece of furniture for the SOLE purpose of storage and organization. For now it is mostly functional and partially good looking. I haven't even stuffed the cubes yet, becuase I am so excited about the possibilities of what I can get out of my eyesite and into these boxes. I am also thinking up a simple/clean way to seal up the baskets so that I can't see in them. More to come on that...

But until then... When my piles look me in the eye and say "Storage?" I will look right back at those fast-multiplying organisms and say "Storage Shmorage!" and shove them in a cube.

 Mrs. Thriftary 



Tell All Tuesday

I thought it would be fun to share some secrets with you all in cyber world... possibly every Tuesday... possibly every other Tuesday.... maybe even the last Tuesday of every month... who knows! But this Tuesday... yes. Yes, I will share a secret.

Dun Dun Dun...

I have been working really hard on getting healthy. Like, Really hard. I started in June, and I haven't stopped yet. I consider this a lifestyle change, not a diet. I would say that after 4 months of really hard trying, I am well on my way to a lifestyle change.

Why haven't I shared with you? Well... it takes a minute to get out of the "weightloss" train of thought and into the "healthy" train of thought. Weight loss is good, and for me, it is necessary, but it also has a self-image conotation, and that is really difficult to share with the whole entire blogosphere. Am I right?

But now... I'm sharing. And you can't stop me!

I started out with a strict diet (so strict that I couldnt even work out at first). Then, I moved into the serious workout phase (5 days/week) along with a serious diet (5 purchased meals a day, and 1 lean and green meal made at home).

In 2 months I lost 20 pounds. Phew!

Then comes the hard part... keeping it off. I am now eating a Low Glycemic diet (look into it... it will change your life) which is a diet focused on health and longevity, rather than rapid weight loss. Super easy to live by and adapt to as a lifestyle. Over the last month and a half I have lost almost another 10 lbs. Cha Ching!

I am about to go into another strict phase, as I still have more weight to lose in order to reach my optimum health goal. I expect to get there within the next 3 months! I am going to be continuing on the Low Glycemic path, but in the weight loss mode (by only eating foods classified in the extra low - low GI portion of the index). Wish me luck :)

In the spirit of feeling great... I have LOVED digging into my drawers and boxes and pulling things out that I haven't been able to wear in a while. I highly recommend this as therapy. So I thought I would incorporate a little bit of WIWW (What I Wore Wednesdays) with today's TAT (Tell All Tuesday). Everything is neater with an anagram. 



This one is special. I bought this dress 3 years ago as a goal. Yea, it's pretty hot. I know. I doubt I will ever wear it out of the house, but in the comfort of my own home, you bet I will wear it while I wash dishes, fold laundry, play chess....
Reaching goals has never been so sexy.
And no... I didn't wear it on Saturday. I just had to go with the trend. I was camping. Remember?

 So Thriftarians... How are you feeling? healthy?

If not... I would seriously look into some minor changes that will help you feel better about the way you look and feel. It will make you feel SO good that you may even take pictures of yourself wearing a multitude of outfits and post them on your blog. Maybe even a form-fitting leopard print dress.

Mrs. Thriftary

TMR

It's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! I haven't reviewed my weekend with you folks in a while. Truth is, it has been so busy and I have neglected to take pictures like a true blogger should. Sometimes you just gotta savor some moments without shoving the camera in everyone's faces (at least that's what Burley keeps telling me). But this weekend was a different story. I am going to have top pic my top fav's from this weekend's Aspen adventure. A group of us got to go up in peak fall season for the Gorgeous forests of Aspen, CO. Bright yellows, oranges, reds, and greens... but mostly yellow. It was unlike anything I have ever seen before. Here are the highlights.

And now i'm so tired aftter all of that :)

Mrs. Thriftary

Freebies!

I have been falling in love with an album. I am trying not to wear it out to fast and grow sick and tired of it, but I just can't stop!

It's not even new... It came out last year. I don't know how I never found it before this week.

Mae Mae over at Two Hoots & A Holler (a fantastic blog you should read) shares her "Top Twenty" every couple of months.... I end up falling in love with every idea/song/food/dance/person that she mentions in her top twenties. This is how I found... the album.

Brook Fraser "Flags" - It is fun & pippy for one song, and then just gorgeous and heart wrenching the next. Her voice is flawless. Her heart is pure and it translates in her music. It is not every day that you find an artist who can put out a positive yet genuine album, that is paired with true artistry. It is a pleasure to listen to.

Can you tell she is my new girl crush? 

To top it all off, she can pull off those super cute/edgy straight bangs that I would never dream of daring to attempt.

Geesh.

So one of the meatier songs that I love on the album is called "Who Are We Fooling." You may ask me "Why are you going to highlight the downer song?" 

Well I will tell you why.

I love real music. Music that makes your heart just sigh and your head stop thinking and all of a sudden you are like "I have never gone through this but she is making me feel like I have... I almost want to feel that pain becuase she makes it sound so beautiful and worth it and blah blah blah"

That is the work of an incredible artist.

And that is what this song did to me. See for yourself.

I loved the lyrics so much that I thought I would give you a freebie poster. You can frame one of these puppies if you want or just pass right on and say "I don't like them."

I, myslef, am going to put this in my loft somewhere that I just havent decided on yet. I will let you know.

That's all I got for today. Go out and buy Brooke Fraser's album. And I will leave you with a super fun song to prove to you that it will cover every emotion that you may want to feel within 45 minutes... include sheer joy.

Mrs. Thriftary

DIY: Magazine Rack

Hey Team -

I hope you all had AMAZING weekends. I sure did. Super restful... Super fun.

I also worked on this little ditty that I am about to share with you... It's going to make all of your guests say...

I have a passion for magazines. The real... hold-in-your-hand, take-it-on-a-plane, cut-out-the-pictures, pass-it-on-to-a-friend, kind of magazines. Not the digital stuff.

However, I have an issue with throwing out the issues after I am through reading the issues. There is just so much good stuff in there that I may need later! It has become quite an issue...

So Burley and I have come to an agreement... as long as I keep them organized, I can keep a moderate amount of magazines at my disposal.

So... Naturally I had to organize STAT!

Here is the project.

You Will Need

2.5 yards of your background fabric: Use a heavier fabric like a muslin of canvas-type thread

1 yard of pocket fabric: You can use whatever you would like

Hanging mechanism: I had a $6.00 piece of hardware from Ikea hanging around, but you can also use a stick or dowell to hang your rack from

Sewing machine: This project would stink to do by hand. Just a plain ol' horrible idea

Many Pins

First: Make the background

You want to make sure that you use quality fabric, and spend the time to line everything for this project. Multiple magazines can get heavy, so you don't want your pockets to rip over time or hang all floppy in your living room. That is just embarassing. No one will compliment your rack.

1. Sew your background fabric (cut to a length that fits the area you will be hanging it) close as a rectangle, leaving a small opening at the top right-hand corner to flip the rectangle inside out.
2. Flip the rectangle inside out
3. Iron the rectangle flat and then measure the fold that you will need to sew a hold for the hanging mechanism (in this case, the metal Ikea piece).
4. Sew this fold over, and in the same swoop, close up that small area you left open to flip your fabric inside out.
5. Now you are ready for the pockets!

I took this picture because I wanted to show you my manicure. That is really it. I don't think that this pic shows you one thing about this project or how to sew. There. I said it.

Second: Make the pockets

1. Use a magazine to measure out the pockets with the fabric that you choose. leave a 2 in margin to make sure that you do not hem and sew the pockets too small to fit your magazine in the end
2. Once you have cut out all your pocket fabric, line them up with your left-over backing fabric, and cut out squares again, to use as the liner for your pockets (this fabric will also show on the fold on top of the pocket)
3. Once you have lined up your squares and pinned the pocket fabrics to your liner fabrics, sew them up, using the same method of leaving a small area un-sewn to flip your pockets inside out.
4. then fold down the rim of your pocket and pin it. Do not sew it yet.
5. Now you are ready to put it together!

Third: Put it all together!

1. Lay your backing out and place the pockets as you desire. I went ahead and put magazines "in" the pockets as I pinned them down, to make sure that the spacing looked right when it was in full use.
2. Pin, pin, pin. This is the best way to make sure the final outcome is level and spaced correctly.
3. Sew your pockets on! I am a horrible seamstress, but I take extra care during this final step to try and sew straight and well. You will see this stitch, so if at all possible, sew well :)
4. Be very very careful when sewing over the upper folds of the pockets. These will be pretty thick by this point, and I broke a needle at one point trying to get over a spot. Again, I am a horrible sewer but thought I would share just in case you are too.

Then..

TADA!!! YOUR RACK!!!

  

You could jazz and bedazzle this guy up as much as you want! I wanted to keep mine plain and simple, because this loft is getting busy up in her'. But please, take creative liberties!

Mrs. Thriftary